Numerical study of turbulent heat transfer of annular fuel assembly in a sodium-cooled fast reactor by a SST k-ω-kθ-εθ model.

The annular fuel has two cooling surfaces inside and outside, which can fully take away the heat of the fuel assemblies. It is urgent to conduct research on sodium-cooled fast reactor annular fuel assemblies. The Prandtl number Pr of liquid sodium is much less than 1 (Pr ˂˂ 1). The problem is that using the traditional constant turbulent Prandtl number Prt of 0.85 ~ 0.9, which will greatly affect the accuracy of the numerical prediction of the thermal-hydraulic properties of liquid sodium. In order to address this issue, the turbulent heat transfer characteristics of the bare and wire spacers 7-pin annular fuel assembly for a sodium-cooled fast reactor are investigated by a SST k-ω-kθ-εθ model. The open-source CFD software OpenFOAM is used for this calculation. In order to verify the validity of the present calculation method, some classical liquid metal heat transfer correlations are used to compare and analyze the results of the present calculation method (kθ-εθ model), the results of the Reynolds analogy hypothesis (Prt = 0.85 model), and the results of the turbulent Prandtl number correlation (Prt = kays model). It is shown that the SST k-ω-Prt = 0.85 model overestimates the Nusselt number Nu of the annular fuel assembly. The SST k-ω-kθ-εθ model agrees well with the SST k-ω-Prt = Kays model of the bare and wire spacers 7-pin annular fuel assembly. It suggests that the numerical calculation results of the SST k-ω-kθ-εθ model are reliable in both the simple and complex fuel assembly models. In brief, the SST k-ω-kθ-εθ model is more capable of predicting the turbulent heat transfer characteristics of the bare and wire spacers 7-pin annular fuel assembly in sodium-cooled fast reactors. In addition, the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of annular fuel assemblies with wire spacers for sodium-cooled fast reactors have been investigated. This research can provide a reference for the study of turbulent heat transfer characteristics of annular fuel assemblies in sodium-cooled fast reactor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Nuclear Science & Technology is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)